Another week, another big budget summer sequel. This Friday it’s Rise of the Silver Surfer, the not so eagerly awaited follow up to 2005’s Fantastic Four, which somehow grossed $330 million at the worldwide box office.
After their explosive exploits in episode one, our heroes are America’s new sweethearts with a Posh and Becks style wedding for The Human Torch (Gruffudd) and Invisible Woman (Alba) dominating front pages from New York to LA.
Their newfound wedded bliss doesn’t last too long though when an intergalactic herald, The Silver Surfer (Fishburne), comes to earth to prepare it for destruction.
To make matters worse, the quartet’s iron fisted nemesis Dr Doom (McMahon) has escaped and is intent on causing as much carnage as inhumanly possible over the course of the next 95 minutes.
They say:
BBC: "Where recent comic book sequels have successfully mixed thrills with good character development, Rise Of The Silver Surfer aims to get by solely on its looks.”
Empire: "A mildy new and improved version. It’s still bubblegum, but keeps its flavour a little longer.”
We say:
Despite being one of the worst movies of 2005, the $330 million world wide gross for The Fantastic Four meant that a sequel was as predictable as Big Brother bust up.
Thankfully, however, Rise of the Silver Surfer also follows another unwritten rule of Marvel Comics sequels…episode two is normally better than the first one. Think X Men and Spider Man.
True to form, the powers that be behind FFROTSS (quite a mouthful) have learned from their earlier mistakes and crafted a marginally improved follow up, which is certainly the best of the big budget sequels currently clogging up our cinemas.
At only 95 minutes it rattles along at a decent pace, doesn’t take itself too seriously, and has a plot that is just about comprehensible most of the time. Anyone who saw the latest Pirates of the Caribbean film will no doubt be wildly appreciative of this.
Of the cast, Klein and Chiklis stand out (the former building on his entertaining recent turn in Sunshine) while McMahon is on amusingly over the top form and Alba is just about pretty enough to cover up the deficiencies in her acting abilities.
The CGI also operates at a slightly higher level than last time, with an apocalyptic showdown against the backdrop of the London Eye the pick of the bunch.
Perhaps the best bit of the film though is the subconscious message that writer Mark Frost appears to be sending his audience about beauty and love. In episode one Michael Chiklis’ character was dumped by his wife because he turned into The Thing, a deformed beast that scared anyone that laid eyes on him. In episode two he is happily shacked up with a new partner… who’s blind!
In other words, if you’re ugly you’re screwed and only people with impaired vision will fancy you. Not exactly Disney is it?
CAST
Jessica Alba
Chris Klein
Michael Chiklis
Ioan Gruffudd
Julian McMahon
Kerry Washington
Laurence Fishburne
DIRECTOR
Tim Story
TIME
91 mins
POSTED...
Wed 13 Jun 2007 at 2:29pm
